Due no later than $11$:$00$ PM EST Sunday of Unit $8$ or as directed by the professor

Value: $3\%$ of final grade

Background

Exploring Lean, TOC, Kai Zen, KANBA and FMEA

The concepts of process improvement methods are essential for propelling organizations beyond challenging times, enhancing productivity, and improving overall performance. The methods primarily focus on reducing or eliminating bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and non$-$value$-$adding activities, while emphasizing value$-$added processes. Every project brings about change, often shifting from an undesirable current state that lacks competitive advantage. Therefore, the need for improvement cannot be overstated. The methods listed in this unit have evolved into structured and institutionalized improvement frameworks used for significant organizational changes. They are distinct and serve specific purposes in various environments, and in more complex situations, they can be combined. These methods find applications across diverse sectors$,$ including manufacturing, services, banking, construction, and information technology. Their effectiveness is amplified when supported by management.

Activity

Using an organization of their choice, students are expected to identify and describe some characteristics of the organization that could use process improvement, and then showcase their critical thinking and problem$-$solving skills by describing and applying a variety of process improvement methods to these problems.